55 minute read
Program Listings
October & November 2021
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
YOUR GUIDE TO IN-PERSON & ONLINE EVENTS AT THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2
Deep Dive into Local Art Scene
Sidnea Amico, Artist DK Haas, Artist Catherine Mackey, Artist Jeremy Sitton, Artist Allison McCrady, Artist; Curator; Art Dealer—Host
Please join us for a lively and intimate gallery art tour at 1890 Bryant Street Studios on Saturday, October 2, at noon—led by artist, curator and art dealer Allison McCrady of the Club’s Arts Member-Led Forum.
For an hour and half we will visit many amazing artists’ studios. We will see and learn about techniques and processes in-person, straight from the creator’s mouth. We will discuss why a piece of art is appealing? What makes us like it? Why is the technique unique?
SAN FRANCISCO
Location: 1890 Bryant Street Studios, 1890 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon–2 p.m. tour MLF: Arts Program organizer: Allison McCrady
Sculpture of the Pacific Rim
Marguerite Elliot, Artist, California Sentinel: Eco-Warrior 1, Steel, Wire, and Gold Leaf Marilyn Kuksht, Artist, Our Roiling World, Steel Charles Stinson, Artist, Ifa, Bronze Oceana Stuart, Artist, Eternal Bliss, Bronze, Eternal Seduction, Bronze, Reminiscent, Bronze Robert Melton, Freelance Curator; Community Events Arts Organizer; Co-Chair, Arts Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator Sculpture of the Pacific Rim, 10.2
Join us for an exclusive special event for Commonwealth Club Leadership Circle members, featuring the exhibit and four artists.
The Sculpture of the Pacific Rim exhibit is a collaborative project with the Pacific Rim Sculptors organization, which has members in the San Francisco Bay Area, along the West Coast, and across the continent and globe. The show features artists from the Pacific West Coast whose works range from figurative, bronze, mixed media, organic, wall hanging and freestanding works. Thematically, the works touch upon a wide range of subject matters and ideas; some invite contemplation while others are playful and whimsical—all presenting a sort of narrative about the human experience and our quest for understanding and making sense of the world we live in.
SAN FRANCISCO
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105 Time: 2:30–3 p.m. doors open & check-in,
3–5:30 p.m. program
MLF: Arts Program organizer: Robert Melton Notes: The Sculpture of the Pacific Rim exhibit at The Commonwealth Club of California lasts from October 2 through 2022.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 4
Dashed Dreams: The Tokyo Olympics, Sex Testing and Biology
Eliza Anyangwe, Journalist; Editor, As Equals, CNN Gender Inequality Project; Twitter @elizatalks Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show,” KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Co-Host John Zipperer, Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host
Leading up to the recent Tokyo Olympics. athletes Annet Negesa of Uganda and Maximila Imali of Kenya both had their Olympic dreams crushed because of rules set by the track and field global governing body, World Athletics. They are just two—of many—elite women athletes who have been told their natural testosterone levels, if not lowered through medication or surgery, disqualify them from competition at the highest levels of sport.
Join us for a conversation about intersex biology and the history of sex testing in women’s athletics ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D.: The COVID-19 Pandemic and What Comes Next
Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Former Commissioner, FDA; Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Author, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic Mark Zitter, Chair, The Zetema Project; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Moderator
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has been one of the most visible commentators on the public health crisis. His insights and writings have helped shaped some of the country’s understanding of the public health impacts of the pandemic since early in 2020. As the country continues to battle the pandemic—especially the emergent delta variant of the coronavirus—Gottlieb will visit the Club for the first time to discuss his new book, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.
Gottlieb’s new book outlines how the United States must prepare for future pandemics by learning from the mistakes made handling the COVID-19 outbreak, which has caused one of the greatest public health tragedies in American history. Gottlieb outlines his efforts in the early 2000s to develop a “Pandemic Influenza Plan” to ready the United States for the threat of a global pandemic, and how short the country came up when it was time to mount an effective response to the novel coronavirus. Further, Gottlieb identifies the early reasons why the United States was so underprepared for the pandemic, from failing to enlist the private sector in large-scale manufacturing of testing supplies and medical equipment to resolutely sticking to the narrative that COVID would go away on its own.
ONLINE Time: 12:30–1:30 p.m. program
Reading Californians Book Discussion: South to Freedom
Alice Baumgartner, Author, South to Freedom Kalena Gregory, Chair, Reading Californians Book Discussion MLF—Moderator
We tend to think of runaway slaves in antebellum United States as heading north on the Underground Railroad. In the southern states, the closer choice was Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1837.
In The Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards gold medal winner for nonfiction, South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, author Alice Baumgartner tells the important but little-known story of Mexico’s radical anti-slavery stance and how it affected slaves in the United States as well as how it might have mitigated the Civil War.
ONLINE Time: 5–6:15 p.m. program
MLF: Reading Californians Book Discussion Program organizer: Kalena Gregory
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6
After One Hundred Winters: America’s Stolen Lands
Margaret Jacobs, Professor of History and Director, The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; Author, After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America’s Stolen Lands In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States has thrived on land violently taken away from Indigenous people. Settler historian Margaret Jacobs asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. She argues that we have much to gain by learning from our history instead of denying it, even as she lays out the brutal legacy of systemic racial injustice to Indigenous people.
Jacobs also explains how early attempts at reconciliation were only successful in further robbing tribal nations of their already reduced land holdings and forcing their children into abusive boarding schools. True reconciliation, she insists, can only emerge through Indigenous leadership and sustained relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people rooted in specific places and histories. In the absence of an official apology and a federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a movement for transformative reconciliation is unofficially underway that puts Indigenous land rights, sovereignty, and values at the forefront. With historical sensitivity and an eye to the future, Jacobs urges people to face the past and learn from it, and once they have done so, to redress past abuses.
ONLINE Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
Lessons from Concurrent Pandemics of COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS
Ignatius Bau, Former HIV Prevention Program Coordinator, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Former Member, President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS Cecilia Chung, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives and Evaluation, Transgender Law Center; Health Commissioner, San Francisco Vince Crisostomo, Director of Aging Services, San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show,” KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Host and Moderator
Join us for an important intergenerational conversation with LGBTQ Asians and Pacific Islanders and their allies. Our panelists will share QTAPI stories and experiences of the dual pandemics of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; their histories as Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States; their past and current roles in community organizing and the political process; as well as other issues that are part of the current cultural and political shifts and relevant to the experiences of QTAPI individuals.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 11 a.m.–noon doors open, check-in and complimentary lunch, noon–1 p.m.
program
Notes: Thanks to Gilead Sciences, Inc. for its generous support of The Michelle Meow Show. This program presented in partnership with GAPA Theatre, The Connection at the San Francisco Community Health Center, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and The Commonwealth Club of California. This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.
Ryan Hampton: Big Pharma, Bankruptcy and Injustice
Ryan Hampton, Addiction Recovery Advocate; Author, Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis In Conversation with Beth Macy, Journalist; Author
In September 2019, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from 2,600 lawsuits for its role in fueling the U.S. overdose crisis. Author and activist Ryan Hampton served as the co-chair of the official creditors committee that acted as a watchdog during the process—one of only four victims to act as representatives of big insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmacies.
Though Hampton originally believed that holding Purdue to account would be enough to right the scales of justice, he soon came to learn that, no matter what the media said, Purdue did not do this alone. Hampton argues they were in fact aided and abetted by the very systems that were supposed to protect Americans.
Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis is Ryan Hampton’s look into what happened behind closed doors—the story of a broken system that failed to protect people over profits, and let millions of lives be destroyed by the opioid crisis. From Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings to the company’s eventual restructuring and the evasion of true accountability, Unsettled is also the untold story of how a group of determined ordinary people tried to see justice done against the odds and in the face of brutal opposition from powerful institutions.
Sarah Stein Greenburg and Laura Holson, 10.6
ONLINE Time: 3–4 p.m. program
Sarah Stein Greenberg & Laura Holson: Creative Acts for Curious People
Sarah Stein Greenberg, Executive Director, Stanford d.school; Author, Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Way Laura Holson, Writer, The New York Times
The great creatives throughout history have been those who can ignite their own fire of innovation and ambition, but what is the flint that brings these sparks of creativity to life? And in a time of great uncertainty, why does creativity matter more than ever? As executive director of Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (commonly referred to as the d.school), Sarah Stein Greenberg is an accomplice to dazzling ingenuity. In her debut book, Creative Acts for Curious People, Stein Greenberg taps into her close ties with bold thinkers and confident doers, providing readers with the ultimate mechanisms to get creative juices flowing. Straight from the cognitive toolkits of Google’s chief evangelist or renowned choreographers, Stein Greenberg lays out practices for mindful observation, intuitive connecting and much much more. The more than 80 exercises, while lighthearted, require a thoughtfulness and intentionality meant to give readers their very own eureka moment.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 5–6 p.m. doors open & check-in, 6–7 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7
Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World
Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Communication Sciences, and Otolaryngology, Northwestern University; Author, Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs our brains must do. Our hearing is always on. We can’t close our ears the way we
close our eyes. And yet we are quite adept at ignoring sounds that are unimportant. Nina Kraus explores what is going on in our brains when we hear a word, a chord, a meow, or a screech, and examines the partnership of sound and brain, showing how the processing of sound drives many of the brain’s core functions. Our hearing brain interacts with what we know, with our emotions, with how we think, with our movements, and with all our other senses. Auditory neurons make calculations at one-thousandth of a second. Hearing is the fastest of our senses.
Sound also plays an unrecognized role in both healthy and hurting brains. Kraus explores the power of music for healing as well as the destructive power of noise on the nervous system. She traces what happens in the brain when we speak another language, have a language disorder, experience rhythm, listen to birdsong, or suffer a concussion.
Join us as Kraus explores how our deep engagement with sound leaves a fundamental imprint on who we are.
ONLINE Time: 10–11 p.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
John Lithgow: A Confederacy of Dumptys
John Lithgow, Actor; Author and Illustrator, A Confederacy of Dumptys: Portraits of American Scoundrels in Verse
John Lithgow’s acclaimed acting career has seen him star in shows like “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “The Crown” and films such as Bombshell and The World According to Garp. In his newest collection of satirical poems and illustrations, Lithgow expertly tracks the dark and lyrical stories of 25 “American Scoundrels.”
Join us as award-winning actor, author and illustrator John Lithgow presents the stories of both long-forgotten figures and the bad actors of today.
ONLINE Time: 12:30–1:30 p.m. program
Peril, with Robert Costa
Robert Costa, National Political Reporter, The Washington Post; Co-Author, Peril In Conversation with Scott Shafer, Senior Editor, KQED’s Politics and Government Desk
The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history. Robert Costa and his co-author Bob Woodward have taken on the task of documenting the transition in a never-before-seen way in their new book, Peril.
With material ranging from secret orders to transcripts of phone conversations from the Trump and Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and more, they tell the story about changes, a first inside look into Biden’s presidency, and the unique challenges that face the new administration.
Join Costa he as analyzes this intense period in history as well as the overall landscape of American politics in 2021.
ONLINE Time: 5–6 p.m. program
Monday, October 11 is 2021 National Coming Out Day. Join us for a fascinating conversation with a talented Pixar animator who directed the recent Out short on Disney+.
Steven Clay Hunter joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997 and has worked as an animator on a number of Pixar’s most beloved films, including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo. He was an animation supervisor on The Incredibles, WALL•E and Brave. Recently, he helped bring to life the characters Hank from Finding Dory (for which he won the 2013 VES award) and Duke Caboom from Toy Story 4.
Most recently, Hunter made his directorial debut with the SparkShort Out on Disney+, which was shortlisted for an Oscar Nomination this past year. In addition, Out is
nominated for a GLADD award.
Prior to coming to Pixar, Hunter worked for Walt Disney Animation on many projects, including Fantasia 2000 and Hercules. He first learned computer animation at Industrial Light & Magic on Casper the Friendly Ghost.
John Lithgow, 10.7 Steven Clay Hunter, 10.11
MONDAY, OCTOBER 11
National Coming Out Day with Pixar’s Steven Clay Hunter
Steven Clay Hunter, Director, Out, Pixar; Animator, Pixar Animation Studios; Twitter @BubbleOfThunder Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show,” KBCW and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @msmichellemeow— Co-Host John Zipperer, Producer and Host, Week to Week Political Roundtable; Vice President of Media & Editorial, The Commonwealth Club—Co-Host
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE MICHELLE MEOW SHOW
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 12:30 p.m. doors open, check-in & lunch, 1–2 p.m. program Notes: Complimentary lunch before the program is provided courtesy of Serramonte Ford.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12
Which Comes First, Overeating or Obesity? Carbohydrates, Insulin and Metabolic Health
David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., Endocrinologist and Researcher, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health Patty James, M.S., N.C. Nutritionist; Chef; Author—Moderator
Standard treatment for obesity, based on a law of physics, assumes that all calories are alike, and that to lose weight one must simply “eat less and move more.” However, this prescription rarely works over the long term. According to the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of obesity, the metabolic condition of fat cells plays a key role in determining body weight. High intakes of processed carbohydrate raise insulin levels and program fat cells to store too many calories, leaving too few for the rest of the body. Consequently, hunger increases, and metabolic rate slows in the body’s attempt to conserve energy. From this perspective, calorie-restricted, low-fat diets amount to symptomatic treatment, destined to fail for most people. Instead, a dietary strategy aiming to lower insulin secretion promises to increase the effectiveness of long-term weight management and chronic disease prevention.
ONLINE Time: 9:30–10:30 p.m. program
MLF: Health & Medicine Program organizer: Patty James
Rationality, with Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; Author, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters In Conversation with Lara Bazelon, Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinical Programs, University of San Francisco
In his new book, popular psychologist and author Steven Pinker explores the concept of collective rationality in society. Today, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding, yet we continue to produce fake news, medical quackery and conspiracy theories. Pinker explains this by rejecting the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational, arguing instead that the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology can add up to crippling irrationality in a society.
Over time, humans have discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself. But despite our sensible thinking in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, he says we often fail to take advantage of the reasoning we’ve discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others.
Pinker asserts that a society that is collectively rational depends on objectivity and truth—and that this kind of thinking leads to better individual choices and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress.
Join Steven Pinker and Lara Bazelon as they delve into this topic and reveal how today’s society, in all its complexity, is formed by our collective human nature.
Fiona Hill, 10.12
ONLINE Time: noon–1 p.m. program
Notes: Thanks to the Ken & Jackie Broad Fund for its partnership.
Fiona Hill: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century
Fiona Hill, Former Senior Director for Europe and Russia, National Security Council; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Author, There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Andrew Yang, 10.13
Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century In Conversation with Ellen Nakashima, National Security Reporter, The Washington Post
Before Fiona Hill became a celebrated foreign policy expert and key witness in the 2019 impeachment trial of then-President Donald Trump, she was a coal-miner’s daughter from northern England in a town where the last of the coal mines had closed. Her father urged her to get out, saying “There is nothing for you here, pet.”
Hill went on to study in Moscow and at Harvard and served under three United States presidents. But in both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. Now she draws on her own journey out of poverty and her unique perspective as a policymaker to warn that America is on the brink of socioeconomic collapse and an authoritarian swing that could rival modern Russia. She says expanding opportunity for desperate and forgotten Americans is the only long-term hope for our democracy.
ONLINE Time: 3–4 p.m. program
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13
Andrew Yang: Forward
Andrew Yang, Entrepreneur; Political candidate; Author, Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy Raj Mathai, News Anchor, NBC Bay Area—
Adam Schiff, 10.14
Moderator
Dubbed the “most surprising” candidate, Andrew Yang made waves with a rousing 2020 presidential campaign. With his newfound platform, he advanced the cause of progressive concepts such as the universal basic income, bringing them into mainstream discussion. A year later, Yang is more adamant than ever that the need for change is urgent and that we can rely on no one else other than ourselves to bring it to fruition.
In his upcoming book Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, Yang emphasizes once more the cumulative and mounting pressures like job automation that already threaten what he argues is an antiquated system. He says that only daring measures can bring us back from the brink of becoming a failed democracy.
At INFORUM, Andrew Yang will lay out his vision for an American future that is modern, sustainable and serves its constituents. Hoping to defy creeping stagnation, he extends a call to action to every American citizen. The message? “Now or never.”
ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM Time: 12:30–1:30 p.m. program
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14
The ‘Pronoun Provision’ and LGBTQ Seniors
John V. Blazek, Executive Director of Day Service and Chief Development Officer, On Lok Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D.; Executive Director, Openhouse Eric Carlson, Directing Attorney, Justice in Aging; Author, Long-Term Care Advocacy and 25 Common Nursing Home Problems — and How to Resolve Them Michelle Meow, Producer and Host, “The Michelle Meow Show,” KBCW TV and Podcast; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors—Moderator
Is intentional misgendering a crime? Should it be? How does it affect the person who is the subject of the treatment? In July 2021, a California district court struck down a provision of the LGBTQ Long-term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights that banned nursing home staff from “willfully and repeatedly” misgendering or using the wrong name to refer to a resident when they’ve been clearly informed of the preferred name or pronoun.
That provision, known as the “pronoun provision,” was ruled to be an infringement on free speech, with one of the judges writing that “misgendering may be disrespectful, discourteous and insulting, and used in an inartful way to express an ideological disagreement with another person’s expressed gender identity,” but the First Amendment “does not protect only speech that inoffensively and artfully articulates a person’s point of view.”
Advocates for LGBTQ seniors, and especially for transgender and gender nonconforming seniors, have called the decision alarming. Openhouse, a San Francisco-based LGBT senior housing, community and services organization, states “Misgendering can be harmful to a resident, particularly as it relates to feelings of safety, acceptance and isolation.”
Join us for a live-stream discussion among advocates and professionals working with transgender and nonconforming seniors about the impact of the ruling and proposals for what to do next.
ONLINE MICHELLE MEOW PROGRAM Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
Susan Orlean: On Animals
Susan Orlean, Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, On Animals
Celebrated writer Susan Orlean visits The Commonwealth Club for the first time to discuss her new book, On Animals, a collection from her lifetime of musings, mediations and in-depth profiles about animals.
Orlean, a staff writer for The New Yorker, is fresh off her last best-selling book, The Library Book, about the Los Angeles Public Library, which won numerous awards. Her new collection focuses on a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, and the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with that are central to human life. Since the age of six, Orlean has been fascinated by stories about animals, and her new book brings forward a lifetime of writing about cross-species connections.
How humans interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets and naturalists for ages. Come hear one of America’s most gifted writers discuss why she is so passionate and curious about the subject.
ONLINE Time: noon–1 p.m. program
Rep. Adam Schiff: Midnight in Washington
Adam Schiff, U.S. Representative (D-CA); Author, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could
From the congressman who led the first impeachment of President Trump, Adam Schiff’s Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could delivers a vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour.
Prior to the 2016 election, Schiff had been sounding the alarm over the threat posed by a global resurgence of autocracy. As he led the probe into Trump’s Russia- and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, he came to the conclusion that the biggest threat to American democracy came from within—arguing that Trump’s presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the danger will remain for years to come. From being a prosecutor to a congressman known for bipartisanship to a liberal lighting rod and archenemy of the president, Adam Schiff tracks his own path to meeting the crisis he argues is severely imperiling America: the dangerous appeal of authoritarianism.
Join us as congressman Adam Schiff deepens our understanding of authoritarianism in the Trump administration and warns that,
even after his defeat, the unleashed forces of autocracy remain as potent as ever.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 2:30 p.m. doors open & check-in, 3–4
p.m. program
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18
Bitcoin in the Middle East
Fadi Elsalameen, M.S., International Relations and Economics; Adjunct Senior Fellow, American Security Project Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer, Human Rights Foundation; Co-Author, The Little Bitcoin Book
Today’s speakers, who are human rights activists as well as being business-oriented, will discuss why Bitcoin matters, especially in the Middle East region.
Alex Gladstein, vice president of strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum, has connected many dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, philanthropists, policymakers and artists, to promote free and open societies. He has shared his views at MIT, Stanford, BBC, the European Parliament, the U.S. State Department, and other venues. He is the singularity expert at Singularity University and advises Blockchain Capital.
Fadi Elsalameen, who was born in Hebron, is a critic of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and has received death threats for his pro-democracy and anti-corruption work. He is a graduate of Seeds of Peace, a successful businessperson, and has also shared his views at many leading institutions, including The Commonwealth Club.
ONLINE Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
MLF: Middle East Program organizer: Celia Menczel
Risk with General Stanley McChrystal
General Stanley McChrystal, Retired Army General; Author, Risk: A User’s Guide In Conversation with Dan Ashley, Co-Anchor, ABC 7 News; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors
From his first day at West Point to his years of deployment in Afghanistan, retired fourstar U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal is no stranger to the deadly risks of combat. Throughout his illustrious career and efforts helping business leaders navigate a global pandemic, General McChrystal has seen how individuals and organizations have failed to mitigate risk by focusing solely on the probability of something happening as opposed to the interface by which it can be managed.
In his new book, Risk: A User’s Guide, McChrystal and co-author Anna Butrico offer a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. This book offers an alternative way of maintaining a healthy “risk immune system” that involves monitoring 10 different dimensions of control the authors say can be adjusted at any time to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze and act upon the ever-present possibility that things will not go as planned.
ONLINE Time: noon–1 p.m. program
Stanley McChrystal, 10.18
Destination Health: The Private Sector’s Role in Ending the COVID-19 Pandemic
Greg A. Adams, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Permanente
Additional Speakers TBA
Raj Mathai, News Anchor, NBC Bay Area
As the devastating effects and tragic loss of life from COVID-19 persist 18 months after the global pandemic began, the world is desperate to end this public health crisis.
As businesses across industries are rolling out varying degrees of vaccine, testing, and masking mandates, President Biden announced the requirement for federal workers, medium and large employers, and health-care staff to be vaccinated. Working together and partnering with government and community leaders, the private sector plays a role in helping to close the vaccination gap in our workforce and communities.
What can the business community do to stop this pandemic? What is the private sector’s role in helping keep our communities safe? How are organizations responding to local, state and federal mandates? What processes are working and not working? What will it take to return to a strong and stable economy? Join a panel of business leaders across industries discussing opportunities to address this public health crisis and how we can work together to end it.
ONLINE Time: 4–5 p.m. program
Notes: This program is generously supported by our partner Kaiser Permanente.
One Fair Wage, with Saru Jayaraman
Saru Jayaraman, President, One Fair Wage; Co-Founder, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United; Director, Food Labor Research Center, UC Berkeley; Author, Behind the Kitchen Door, Forked: A New Standard for American Dining, and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America
As president of One Fair Wage and director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley, Saru Jayaraman has fought for a reimagining of tipped industries. She argues that at just $2.13 an hour, what tipped-wage workers are paid is unlivable on its own and that, unsurprisingly, the people in these jobs are often society’s most vulnerable: undocumented, BIPOC, and women workers who already make cents on the dollar of their white male counterparts. In place of the 30-year-old subminimum wage, Jayaraman has worked tirelessly to realize a fair living wage for these essential workers. In the wake of COVID-19, she says it is more obvious than ever that changes need to be made if we want to keep everyone’s head above water.
Jayaraman’s message is unwavering—our drivers, delivery workers, servers and nail technicians deserve to have a livelihood. At INFORUM she will lay out what changes she says need to be made and how we can achieve a fair, livable wage for everyone in our communities.
INFORUM PROGRAM
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 5–6 p.m. doors open & check-in, 6 –7 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19
David Wessel: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age
David Wessel, Senior Fellow and Director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution; Author, Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age
When a Silicon Valley entrepreneur developed a tax break intended as a way to incentivize the rich to invest in underserved communities, the idea was pushed into law
with little scrutiny or fine-tuning and few safeguards against abuse. With an unbeatable pair of high-profile sponsors and deft political marketing, the Opportunity Zone became an unnoticed part of the 2017 Trump tax bill.
In his new book Only the Rich Can Play: How Washington Works in the New Gilded Age, bestselling author David Wessel follows the money—starting from this Opportunity Zone initiative—to see who profited from the plan that was supposed to spur development of blighted areas and help people out of poverty. His findings? The Las Vegas Strip, the Portland (Oregon) Ritz-Carlton, and the Mall of America. In other words, lucrative areas where the wealthy can place their money profitably and avoid capital gains taxes.
Wessel provides vivid portraits of the proselytizers, political influencers, consultants, real estate dealmakers and individual money-seekers looking to take advantage of this opportunity. He looks at the cities in which the Opportunity Zone initiatives have failed, as well as a few where they have succeeded, and offers a lesson on how a better-designed program might have helped more left-behind places.
Join us as David Wessel, offers an in-depth analysis of the bill he faults with keeping the rich richer—revealing the gritty reality of a system tilted in favor of a few while leaving many out in the cold.
Saru Jayaraman, 10.18
ONLINE
Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
Charles Blow: A Black Power Manifesto
Charles Blow, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times; Author, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto In Conversation with Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Co-host, “Strict Scrutiny” Podcast
Violence against Black people—both physical and psychological—has seemed only to increase in recent years, culminating in the historic pandemic and protests in the summer of 2020. “After centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy,” Charles Blow writes, “ it seems to me that it has fallen to Black people to do it themselves.”
A New York Times op-ed columnist, Blow felt compelled to write a new story for Black Americans, one that involves a succinct, counterintuitive and impassioned correction to the myths that have for too long governed our thinking about race and geography in America. The Devil You Know is a grand exhortation to generations of a people, proposing nothing short of the most audacious power play by Black people in the history of this country.
Join us as Charles Blow offers a road map to true and lasting freedom.
ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM Time: 12:30–1:30 p.m. program
Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20 A Conversation with Bret Baier
Bret Baier, Chief Political Anchor for Fox News Channel, Anchor and Executive Editor, “Special Report with Bret Baier”; Author, To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876
Brought to us by Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier, To Rescue the Republic is an epic history of Ulysses S. Grant—spanning from the battlefields of the Civil War to the violent turmoil of Reconstruction to the forgotten electoral crisis that nearly fractured a reunited nation.
Desperate for bold leadership in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln turned to Ulysses S. Grant, appointing him lieutenant general of the Union Army, precipitating their victory within a year. Four
years later, as president of the United States, Grant rose to the challenge of Reconstruction by advancing its agenda and aggressively countering the Klu Klux Klan.
When the contested presidential election of 1876 produced no clear victory, it was Grant who forged the painful compromise that saved the fragile nation, but tragically pushed the Civil Rights movement even further down the road. In this book, Baier dramatically reveals Grant’s palpable and essential influence on the United States as it suffered through a severe period of internal division.
Charles Blow, 10.19
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube
Brett Baier, 10.20
Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 11:15 a.m. doors open & check-in, noon–1 p.m. program, 1 p.m. book signing Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
Bryant Terry’s Black Food
Bryant Terry, Chef; Author, Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora
With dazzling illustrations, sumptuous recipes, and its own curated playlist, Bryant Terry’s sixth book, Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora, is a feast for the senses. Terry, a renowned vegan culinary innovator, returns to dive into the depth and breadth of Black foodways spanning nations and time.
Black Food celebrates both the creations and creators, pairing heartwarming stories of generational traditions with the soul-filling foods at the center of them. From tropical Afro-Caribbean dishes like jerk chicken to beloved Nigerian jollof rice and further on to southern sweet potato pie, this book is an ode to the African diaspora’s influence on food and culture.At INFORUM, Bryant Terry will share the stories, people, places and ingredients that make Black food the diverse and divine cuisine it is today.
ONLINE Time: 6–7 p.m. program
Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21
Fritjof Capra: Patterns of Connection
Fritjof Capra, Author, Patterns of Connection In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Join us for a virtual conversation with Fritjof Capra to discuss the evolution of his thought. In the late 1950s Capra read the work of Werner Heisenberg, a founder of quantum mechanics, and quickly intuited connections between the discoveries of quantum physics and the traditions of Eastern philosophy. The result was his bestselling book, The Tao of Physics. His synthesis, dispensing with the mechanistic worldview of Descartes and Newton in favor of a systemic, ecological one, provided him with a different perspective on the life sciences, ecology and environmental policy.
Six decades later, Fritjof Capra remains at the crossroads of physics, spirituality, environmentalism and systems theory. Organized thematically and chronologically, the essays in Patterns of Connection document his revolutionary and far-reaching intellectual journey.
ONLINE Time: 10–11 a.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
Joe Weisberg: Do We Have Russia Upside Down?
Joe Weisberg, Television Writer; Creator, “The Americans”; Former CIA Officer; Author, Russia Upside Down In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Join us for a conversation with Joe Weisberg, who makes the case in his new book Russia Upside Down that America’s foreign policy toward Russia is failing, and we’ll never fix it unless we rethink our entire relationship. Weisberg came of age in America in the 1970s and ’80s as a Cold Warrior. He studied Russian in Leningrad, and then joined the CIA—just in time to watch the Soviet Union collapse.
Less than a decade later, though, a new Cold War broke out. Russia had changed in many of the ways that America hoped it might. It had become more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas. But U.S. sanctions crippled Russia’s economy, and Russia’s internet-based retaliations have exacerbated our own political problems. Weisberg says the old paradigm—America, the free capitalist good guys, fighting Russia, the repressive communist bad guys—simply doesn’t apply anymore. But we’ve continued to act as if it does.
Weisberg asks hard questions about our foreign policy and attempts to understand what Russia truly wants. He concludes that we are fighting an enemy with whom we have few if any serious conflicts of interest, we are fighting this unnecessary war with ineffective and dangerous tools, and our approach is not working anyway. With our own political system in peril, and continually being buffeted by Russian attacks, he argues that we need a new framework. Urgently. Weisberg makes it clear what the stakes are and lays out the foundation for a new American foreign policy for dealing with Russia.
Bryant Terry, 10.20
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Time: 2:30–3 p.m. doors open & check-in, 3–4 p.m. program, 4 p.m. book signing MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
Equity and Justice in the Development of Cities
Rev. Norman Fong, Former Executive Director, Chinatown Community Development Center, focused on addressing poverty, housing and small businesses in Chinatown Rev. James McCray, Executive Director, Tabernacle Community Development Corp., a developer of affordable housing in San Francisco with a focus on slowing the city’s
out-migration of African Americans Gerald Harris, President, Quantum Planning Group; Chair, Technology & Science Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club—Moderator
Our speakers, Rev. Norman Fong and Rev. James McCray, will discuss their direct handson experience in working to address the issue of equity and justice in community development, especially around building affordable housing, engaging community members for advocacy and support, and the broader issues of economic development connected to jobs and small business support. They will reflect on how these issue exist in San Francisco and in cities around the country.
Join us for a timely discussion on equity and justice in the development of cities.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Time: 5:30–6 p.m. doors open & check-in,
6–7 p.m. program
MLF: Technology & Society Program organizer: Gerald Harris Notes: Presented in partnership with Chinatown Community Development Center, Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, and The San Francisco Black Community Restoration Institute.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21
Humanities West Presents Dante’s Divine and Comic 700th Anniversary
Kip Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus, San Francisco Opera Marisa Galvez, Professor of French and Italian, and by Courtesy, of German Studies and Comparative Literature; Faculty Director, Structured Liberal Education, Stanford University Timothy Hampton, Aldo Scaglione and Marie M. Burns Distinguished Professor of French and Comparative Literature; Director, Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California, Berkeley George Hammond—Moderator
Many nations have a national poet, whose poetry helps carve out their own unique cultural niche in human civilization. Italy has enjoyed many literary geniuses for over two millennia, but still looks to one man the most: Dante. Like major poets in other cultures, Dante’s influence on the Italian language can hardly be overstated. The Divine Comedy was the first major work of literature to leave Latin behind in favor of Italian, and it remains the world standard of poetic excellence. Dante’s fertile imagination also inspired artists, writers and theologians, making him almost as influential about the afterlife as he is linguistically.
Join Humanities West in person at The Commonwealth Club, or via livestream, to celebrate the 700th Anniversary of Dante’s death—which ironically occurred not that many months after he completed his speculations about post-death possibilities—with a two-hour, three-lecture Dante feast: • Timothy Hampton on “Dante After Dante: the Forms of Memory.” • Kip Cranna on “Dante at the Opera: From the Divine Comedy to a Comic Puccini Delight.” • Marisa Galvez on “Dante Before Dante Become Dante.”
Dante’s Divine Comedy, 10.22
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 4:15–5 p.m. doors open & check-in,
5–7 p.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25
Corporate Net Zero Pledges: Ambitious or Empty Promises?
Simon Fischweicher, Head of Corporations and Supply Chains, CDP North America Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, Climate One
Corporate pledges of reaching net zero carbon emissions have quickly become commonplace. Critics argue that such pledges are mere greenwashing, and even if pledges are fulfilled, the balance sheets usually utilize carbon offsets, which can also be of questionable quality and accountability.
Proponents of corporate net zero pledges say we’ll never get to net zero emissions without corporate action, and pledges represent legitimate ramping up of corporate ambition and commitment. How can consumers, investors and policy leaders distinguish between stalling and increased ambition? Can third-party auditors hold companies accountable? And could corporate pledges play a meaningful role in the climate negotiations in Glasgow?
ONLINE CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM Time: 8–9 a.m. program
Notes: This program is generously underwritten by the Erol Foundation.
Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor: This Is Ear Hustle
Nigel Poor, Visual Artist; Co-Creator and Co-Host, “Ear Hustle” Podcast; Co-Author, This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life Earlonne Woods, Co-Creator and Co-Host, “Ear Hustle” Podcast; Co-Author, This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life Piper Kerman, Author, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison—Moderator
Some might say that Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods were destined to meet. Poor, a professor of photography at CSU Sacramento, was volunteering with the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison when she met Woods, who was serving a 31-year-to-life sentence. The two bonded over a love of storytelling and with no formal experience, began a podcast together where they showcase the realities of life in prison while detailing the path of their fateful friendship. Their upcoming book, This Is Ear Hustle, shares its name with their well-received podcast, which has gone on to become a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize and is in its seventh season. The book avoids the overtly political and instead delves into the richness of humanity found even behind the bars of the prison system. With candor,
the authors showcase the unlikely inspiration found in stories of the incarcerated.
At INFORUM Earlonne Woods—whose sentence was commuted in 2018—and Nigel Poor will take our stage to help our audiences become “ear hustlers’’ themselves, eavesdropping on the tales of resilience, forgiveness and the lives that exist behind some of America’s most well-guarded doors.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 5–6 p.m. doors open & check-in, 6–7 p.m. program, 7 p.m. book signing
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26
California Travel Secrets for Your Next Staycation
Ruth Carlson, Author, Secret California: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure Karen Misuraca, Author, Secret Sonoma: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations with Socrates
Is the trip from your living room to your kitchen no longer exciting? But you aren’t quite ready for Rome? Ruth Carlson returns to The Commonwealth Club with her travel insights for nearby but unusual California attractions, from Angels Camp to ZZYZX, and from a town with its own secret language to a perfume museum with a whale poop exhibit.
Karen Misuraca joins Carlson to focus on Sonoma’s curiosities, icons and hidden treasures, including a beer lovers festival in wine country, flesh-eating plants that create their own little shop of horrors, Charlie Brown’s cartoon world, Gold Rush era bars, hidden beaches along a world-famous coastline, and the tallest trees on the planet. Or would you prefer to fly through the treetops, stargaze through powerful telescopes, or loll about in geothermal hot springs?
Whether your intent is to travel by imagination, or to plan your next nearby vacation, join us first to enhance your trip.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 2:30–3 p.m. doors open & check-in,
3–4 p.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor, 10.25
Keisha N. Blain: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America
Keisha N. Blain, Historian; Associate Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh; President, African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS); Author, Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America Aimee Allison, Founder and President, She the People—Moderator
Dubbed a social justice manifesto, Until I Am Free, by author Keisha N. Blain, is a unique opportunity to hear about life from the perspective of a working, impoverished and disabled Black woman. Blain, an award-winning historian, details the life and accomplishments of Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist too often forgotten in the narrative of racial justice. Defying the layers of marginalization that threatened to hush her powerful words, Blain holds Hamer in the same esteem as her contemporaries Rosa Parks and MLK. Through Blain, Hamer’s message is given new life in an age where the same issues remain pertinent.
At INFORUM Blain will peel back the layers of Fannie Lou Hamer—layers that ostensibly would have taken power away from her but instead became the very source from which she drew it. This conversation will be moderated by Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People.
ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM Time: 5–6 p.m. program
Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
Rick Ridgeway: Climbing, Conservation and Capitalism
Rick Ridgeway, Former Vice President, Patagonia Greg Dalton, Founder and Host, Climate One
Rick Ridgeway estimates he’s spent a total of more than 5 years of his life sleeping in tents, often in the world’s most remote places alongside fellow outdoor adventure luminaries Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) and Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face).
Ridgeway himself worked for Patagonia for 15 years and was behind the company’s infamous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad campaign, which paradoxically advocated sustainability and increased sales.
What is the role of corporations in conservation? And where is the line between greenwashing and truly green practices? Join us for a live conversation with one of the world’s foremost mountaineers and former Patagonia vice president, Rick Ridgeway.
ONLINE CLIMATE ONE PROGRAM Time: 6–7 p.m. program
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27
Money and the Perils of Dementia
Director, Ray Dolby Brain Health Center, California Pacific Medical Center Gretchen Hollstein, C.F.P., Principal and Senior Wealth Advisor, Litman Gregory Asset Management Natalie Oh, C.L.U., Insurance Professional Denise Michaud, Chair, Grownups Member-Led Forum, The Commonwealth Club of California—Moderator
Many families don’t expect that dementia will be a factor in financial decisions, but it is more common than we think. The challenge is that people can start having trouble managing their finances years before being diagnosed with dementia. Our expert panel delves into this subject so you will recognize when a loved one’s capacity is declining and what to do about it.
They will explain a dementia diagnosis,
the implications of this condition on our planning abilities, and suggestions on how to create an advance directive with this outcome in mind.
They will also discuss how families can navigate their financial matters, with their advisors, if faced with the unexpected issues of dementia. They will share some examples of the best practices of individuals and families who successfully prepare for the possibility of dementia, and share some pitfalls of not planning ahead for this increasingly common experience. The concept of having or losing the capacity for financial decision-making is vague to most people. Yet it is understandable when you know the legal components of financial capacity.
The concept of preparing for a loss of capacity can be a scary thing to face. Yet it can be comforting to learn the definite ways to manage your financial affairs, so they can be handled in your best interests and in line with your values and expectations.
Rick Ridgeway, 11.3
ONLINE Time: 9:30–10:30 a.m. program
MLF: Grownups Program organizer: Denise Michaud
Courageous Conversations About Race
Glenn E. Singleton, Author, Courageous Conversations About Race Brandon Schneider, Chief Operating Officer, Golden State Warriors
For more than 30 years, Glenn Single-
ton has been helping companies begin a dialogue around race and confront deeply entrenched habits and thought processes. His book Courageous Conversations About Race is a blueprint that gives educators the tools to create equity at their school sites and beyond. During a time in our history when anti-racism is becoming the dominant goal of many organizations and communities; Singleton has been able to amplify lessons that he has been teaching for years as an anti-racism instructor.
Why examine and address race? According to Courageous Conversations, race matters in our nation and around the world. Singleton says it is critical that we address racial issues in order to uncover personal and institutional biases that prevent all people, and especially people of color, from reaching their fullest potential. He sees Courageous Conversations as serving as the essential strategy for systems and organizations to address racial disparities through safe, authentic and effective cross-racial dialogue.
Creating Citizens will host a discussion between Singleton and Golden State Warriors Chief Operating Officer Brandon Schneider. The Golden State Warriors have been a great example of what happens when an organization takes seriously the lessons learned about addressing racial disparities and making investments into anti-racist work while championing diversity and inclusion.
LaDoris Cordell 10.27
ONLINE CREATING CITIZENS PROGRAM Time: 5:30 doors open & check-in
Her Honor: LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
LaDoris Cordell, Judge (Ret); Author, Her Honor: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It
There is only one room that bears witness to marriages, divorces, adoptions, and criminal proceedings—the courtroom. Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell has sat in this room and dedicated nearly five decades of her life to putting justice back into the justice system. As the first African American female judge to serve on the Superior Court in northern California and a trailblazer in many other respects, her years on the bench have put her, in the most literal terms, front and center to the societal microcosm that is the courtroom.
In her debut book Her Honor: My Life on the Bench . . . What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It, Judge Cordell gives an inside look into a judge’s chamber. She shares real stories of the trials and tribulations involved in making life-changing, sometimes life-or-death decisions. Further, she presents hard-earned knowledge on the cracks in the system and how we can repair them with institutional accountability and equitable reconfigurations.
At INFORUM Judge Cordell will detail a career that has been steadfast and powerful in its advancement of LGBTQ+ rights, police accountability, and elevating of BIPOC communities. She will draw on stories both heartwarming and painful to shed light on the good and bad in a system that she says
Alyssa Milano, 10.28
should, must, and will serve all.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 5–6 p.m. doors open & check-in, 6–7
p.m. program
Notes: Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28
Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry
Alyssa Milano, Actor; Activist; Author, Sorry Not Sorry
Alyssa Milano’s renowned career is characterized by one success after another. If you don’t know her from one of her many TV or movie roles since her debut at age seven, then it’s undoubtedly her activism in politics and the #MeToo movement that has put her on the radar. Milano’s life — being raised in the limelight of celebrity and being in the rooms others dream of — has given her unmatched insight into parts unknown. At the same time Milano is a wife, a mother of two (plus many animals), and has strived to maintain a sense of normalcy despite her powerful, star-turned-humanitarian persona.
From within this unique well of knowledge comes Milano’s new book Sorry Not Sorry, a series of both unimaginable and wildly relatable tales from a life’s worth of playing many roles, including herself.
At INFORUM, Milano will give an insider peek into the head that wears many hats — sharing relationship advice, tales borne from stardom, and a generous dose of humor. Sincere, striking, and welcomingly blunt, Milano’s stories are sure to charm time and time again
ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM Time: 6–7 p.m. program
Notes: This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Sebastian Junger: Freedom
Sebastian Junger, Co-Director, Restrepo; Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair; Author, Freedom In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Sebastian Junger returns, in person, to The Commonwealth Club to discuss the ideas in his latest book, Freedom. Throughout history, he says, humans have been driven by the quest for two cherished ideals: community and freedom. The two don’t coexist easily. We value individuality and self-reliance, yet are utterly dependent on community for our most basic needs. Junger examines that tension—which lies at the heart of what it means to be human.
For much of a year, Junger and three friends—a conflict photographer and two Afghan War vets—walked the railroad lines of the East Coast. It was an experiment in personal autonomy, but also in interdependence. Dodging railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over fires, and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another.
Junger weaves his account of this journey together with related digressions on primatology and boxing strategy, the history of labor strikes and Apache raiders, the role of women in resistance movements, and the brutal reality of life on the Pennsylvania frontier.
SAN FRANCISCO & ONLINE
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 11:30 a.m. doors open & check-in, noon–1 p.m. program, 1 p.m. book signing MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
The COVID Labyrinth: Where Are We In It and How Do We Escape?
John McWhorter, 11.2
agement., Milken School of Public Health, George Washington University; Former Commissioner of Health, Baltimore City; TED MED Speaker; Author, Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health Dr. George Lundberg, M.D., Editor in Chief, Cancer Commons; Editor at Large, Medscape; Executive Adviser, Cureus; Clinical Professor of Pathology, Northwestern University; President and Chair, The Lundberg Institute Dr. Susan Levenstein, M.D., Primary Care Internist; Blogger, “Stethoscope On Rome”; Author, Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome George Hammond, Author, Conversations with Socrates
Join us for a medical panel discussion about where we are in the COVID pandemic. What progress has been made? What failures contributed most to making recovery so complicated? How do we, and should we, accelerate the vaccination programs in other countries? Do we have a realistic exit strategy? Or will we be living with COVID for the foreseeable future? And does that mean that the distrust in medical authorities and governments that the pandemic has exacerbated will prove to be a socially intractable problem for decades to come?
The 11th Annual Lundberg Institute Lecture will once again deal with the major medical issue of our time, asking the questions that need to be answered if we are to find our way forward successfully. Join us in person in San Francisco, or by livestream, to ask your questions too.
Location: 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco Time: 2:30 p.m. doors open & check-in, 3–4
p.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2
John McWhorter: The Limits of Antiracism
John McWhorter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; Author, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, Americans have been engaged in a vast discussion on the state of race in America. The issue has become a divisive, tense debate about how the country faces its racist past, the meaning of systemic racism, the role of critical race theory in K–12 schools and universities, and what it means to be “anti-racist” during this challenging moment in American civic life.
Renowned linguist and award-winning writer John McWhorter feels this debate and discussion has been dominated by a “woke mob” that subscribes to theories that are illogical, unreachable and, ultimately, racist in their impact, however unintentional those effects may be. In his book Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America, McWhorter argues that an “illiberal neoracism,” disguised as antiracism, is hurting Black communities and weakening the American social fabric.
McWhorter reveals the workings of this new progressive approach toward race, from the original sin of “white privilege” to the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics. He sets out to show how efforts that claim to “dismantle racist structures” are actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. Some call it “antiracism,” but to McWhorter, it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.
Please join us for an important discussion on the limits of antiracism with an increasingly visible writer who has a different roadmap to justice that he believes will help, not hurt, Black America.
Paul Hawken, 11.3 Diana Campoamor, 11.3
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Diana Campoamor: A Latine Vision for a New American Democracy
Diana Campoamor, Founder, Nuestra America Fund (NAF); Editor, If We Want to Win: A Latine Vision for a New American Democracy
There is no version of America’s past, present or future that does not involve the Latinx community. As the second-largest ethnic group, the Latinx community has played a fundamental role in shaping our culture, our elections and our society. And yet, as Nuestra America Fund (NAF) founder Diana Campoamor argues, time and time again this community is undermined, their contributions are pushed to the wayside, and their voices are consistently hushed.
Campoamor’s book, If We Want to Win: A Latine Vision for a New American Democracy, is a pushback against such silencing. Twenty Latinx visionaries from diverse causes come together in its pages to share their stories of growth, resilience and revolution. With a diversity of knowledge ranging from environmental justice to philanthropy, these stories cover a wealth of lived experiences. From this they mastermind a future in which harmful stereotypes are replaced with nuanced understandings of the community’s diversity and their accurate portrayal sets the tone for a more representative and just democracy.
At INFORUM, Campoamor will be in conversation with a panel of experts to recount their own stories of growing up in the Latinx community and validate the experiences of the community at large. With this shared wisdom on their side, they will reiterate the bounty to come from a more just future in which the Latinx community is accredited, vindicated, and cherished.
ONLINE INFORUM PROGRAM Time: noon–1 p.m. program
ReGeneration with Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken, Environmentalist; Author, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation Elizabeth Carney, Entrepreneur; Chair, Business & Leadership Member-Led Forum—Moderator
ReGeneration has two meanings. It refers to regenerating life on earth, and it refers to a new generation of humans coming together to reverse global warming. Join Paul Hawken as he demonstrates, through his new work, a response to the urgency of the warming crisis. You will come away with your own sense of purpose and next actions for renewal.
ONLINE Time: 3–4 p.m. program
MLF: Business & Leadership Program organizer: Elizabeth Carney
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Sam Quinones: America in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
Sam Quinones, 11.4
Time of Fentanyl and Meth
In 2015, Sam Quinones woke up many Americans to the dangers of the opioid epidemic with his book Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. In his new book, The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, Quinones explores the terrifying next stages of the opioid epidemic, and the stories of individuals and communities that have fought back.
Quinones was among the first journalists to capture the true danger presented by synthetic drugs. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine, and laced it into cocaine, meth, and counterfeit pills, causing tens of thousands of deaths—at the same time as Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent than ever. Combined, these new synthetic drugs wrecked communities across the country, particularly rural areas, led to a surge of mental illness concerns, and fed a growing homelessness problem. At a time of great despair because of multiple drug epidemics, Quinones also finds sources of hope, in communities fighting back against rampant synthetic drug issues and helping individuals repair their lives. He concludes that the nation has forsaken “what has made America great” and that “when drug traffickers act like corporations and corporations like drug traffickers, our best defense, perhaps our only defense, lies in bolstering community.”
ONLINE Time: 3–4 p.m. program
Roosevelt Montás, 11.5
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16
Roosevelt Montás: Rescuing Socrates
Roosevelt Montás, Senior Lecturer, Center for American Studies, and Director, Freedom and Citizenship Program, Columbia University; Author, Rescuing Socrates In Conversation with George Hammond, Author, Conversations With Socrates
Join us for a virtual conversation with Roosevelt Montás to discuss how a classical, liberal education is still spreading, both in-person and over the internet, to people of all backgrounds throughout the world, and how, even though currently out of favor academically in America, it is still transforming millions of lives. Montás weaves together memoir, literary reflection and the impact that reading Plato, Augustine, Freud and Gandhi has had on his life.
Rescuing Socrates describes Montás’s emigration from the Dominican Republic to Queens, New York, when he was 12, and his discovery of the classics as an undergraduate at Columbia University. After graduating, he stayed at Columbia, earning a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature, serving as director of Columbia’s Center for the Core Curriculum, and starting a Great Books program for low-income high school students who aspire to be the first in their families to attend college.
ONLINE Time: 10–11 a.m. program
MLF: Humanities Program organizer: George Hammond
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17
David Cay Johnston: The Big Cheat
David Cay Johnston, Co-Founder, DCReport. org; Author, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family; Twitter @DavidCayJ
The Trump family is one of the most talked about families in the United States. Donald Trump’s presidency elevated that and helped put them on an international stage. Over the last half decade, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston has provided the American people with fascinating insight into the financial world of one of America’s most influential families.
Johnston talks about the financial life of the Trump Family in his new piece of work, The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family. This new book details the aspects of the Trump family’s finances during the four years Donald Trump spent in office, leaving no details out, to give you the complete picture.
ONLINE Time: 3–4 p.m. program
LATE-BREAKING EVENT Pathways to Peace: Through the Lens of Interfaith Youth
Our young panelists will present their views on what might bring peace and reconciliation to our troubled world.
Thursday, October 28, 3 p.m. More at commonwealthclub.org/events
